Thursday, October 30, 2008

What Kent Wears

This is a post I did for Charles Henry's famous online cotton blog. Spelling Errors have been modified. Ideas have been mildly expanded.

This Motorhead shirt features a great oversized logo and a classicslogan. It was purchased at Hot Topic. Yes, Hot Topic. I first saw Motorhead in Mayof 1999. I was a senior in high school and mainly went to see theopening acts, which featured Dropkick Murphys, Hatebreed, andSkarhead.

Skarhead opened the show and shared some classic banter with thepeople who decided to come early. A Motörhead show, similar to aSlayer show predominantly features 40 year old auto mechanics yellingthe name of the headlining act during every opening band. Lord Ezeckindly asked , "If you see anyone yelling motörhead, punch them in thefucking face."

'Kings At Crime' had just come out so most of the songs they playedwere off that record. They sent out 'Y.A.S.' to Chubby Fresh who laterallegedly got into an altercation with the band outside the show. Ipurchased a Skarhead t-shirt at this show which I wore proudly formany years.

Hatebreed was notorious for cancelling shows around this time and Iwas relieved to see they had made this show. Their set wasunbelievable. They exploded onto the stage and played all of the hitsoff 'Satisfaction...'. Was any song not a hit on that record?

Hatebreed were just crossing over into the metal world at this time,so having to see them with a barricade was a bit foreign. They made upfor it with their energy and intensity and even threw me the micduring 'Last Breath'. This was one of Sean Martin's first tours withthe band and I remember him smashing his guitar when it startedmalfunctioning.

During Hatebreed, a white trash gentleman in a TOOL shirt, asked mewho was playing. I told him,"Hatebreed from Connecticut."He said "They are called Connecticut?"He then yelled Motörhead at the top of his lungs and proceeded to pusheveryone around him.

Dropkick murphys were in the direct support slot. "The Gang's allHere" had just been released and they focused on that. Their reactionwas lackluster, which was surprising because they had a huge skinheadfollowing in Cleveland at the time. Earlier in the day, I walked in onoriginal guitarist Rick Barton taking a shit in a stall without a door.I thought it was strange at the time, but being on tour now, I have shit in stalls without doors, shit in bags, and well...shit my pants.

Motorhead closed the show and played what seemed like every song inthe history of recorded music, and they played them very loudly. Idon't care how awesome you are, a 2.5 hour set is overkill. Too muchof anything can get old, even pizza and suck jobs. I didn't seeMotörhead for 3 years after this, and their next clevo appearancefeatured Morbid angel, Ringworm, American nightmare, and StrikingDistance. That is a different story for a different day.

Ask Chucky how to wash and dry this, I just sell the things, I don'tlaunder them.